Why do you mentor?

I run a mentor-driven program designed to help young social entrepreneurs from emerging countries scale the impact they seek to have in their communities. We have a fantastic growing network of mentors and we're always looking to add more. For those who have served as a mentor, I'd love to know:

What motivates you to serve as a mentor?

How do you select who you mentor?

What expectations do you have of your mentee?

What would make the mentoring experience better for you?

What tools or support would make it easier to lend your time? (i.e - someone to schedule meeting for you, email reminders of meetings, an app like assistant.to, etc.)

Monica, over the last 8 years I have mentored over 60 companies in Germany, US, Canada and Bolivia. I do this to give back and share my experience of starting and growing 2 successful software companies, but also because I love it, there is a new challenge with each assignment and I love working with young and creative people. I select who I mentor mostly based on personal aspects of the mentee (smart, keen, gutsy, humble but aggressive) and less by industry segment or type of challenge.My expectations are: hard work, prompt and frequent communication, honesty, willingness/ability to change.I have no answers for the last 2 questions. I run my own calendar and don't need yet another app.Jolkona is intriguing and a great idea. I am "next door" in Vancouver if I can be of any help.

What tools or support would make it easier to lend your time? (i.e - someone to schedule meeting for you, email reminders of meetings, an app like assistant.to, etc.)

Too many tools are around this. They just get in the way of engaging. Mentoring shouldn't be a tool assisted schedule. It should be more flowing, that said anything that makes your own workflow better should be useful.

Hi, Monica;
Thanks for inviting my feedback on the subject of mentoring, which I very
much believe in and enjoy. Here are my answers to your questions:
I'm am motivated to mentor by my desire to constantly seed, grow and
replenish my personal and professional network with high-value,
high-integrity people. My goal is to evolve from traditional mentor-protege
relationships to more of a peer-to-peer relationship of respect and
reciprocation as soon as organically possible. In the best case scenario, I
am being mentored by (especially in areas that are new to me, or where I am
not experienced/connected) at least as much as I am mentoring a person.
Mentoring is one of my preferred ways to cross-cultivate contacts and
relationships across industries and ares of interest, bringing
ever-increasing scale to my sphere of influence.
I select people to mentor organically. What catches my attention is if I
find the person and what they're into to be of genuine interest to me.
Beyond that, I look for people who show up, step up and follow through,
with or without my (or anyone else's) help or advice. I like to mentor
people with a bias toward action; my contribution is to make that action
more fruitful, often by connecting them with other resources and
relationships.
My biggest expectations of mentees: 1. That they don't wait around on me to
take action; 2. That they commit to mentoring others; 3. That listen to
others, but always trust their own judgement--win, lose or draw; 4. That
they focus on learning and applying the lessons of each experience/outcome.
Can't think of anything to make the mentoring experience better for me; my
satisfaction consistently exceeds my investment of time and attention. Nor
can I think of additional desired tools.
All the best,
Alfred
Alfred A. Edmond Jr., Co-Principal
*Grown Zone*, *a product of* A2Z Personal Growth Enterprises
*More than Adult Choices*. *Grown Decisions*
www.GrownZone.com
My book with Zara D. Green is now available via Amazon
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*Changing the conversation about what healthy love is!*
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I would love to learn
more about your mentorship program. To answer your questions:

What motivates you to serve as a mentor?I
am a naturally curious person, and often mentoring just comes out as a
natural extension of getting to know someone. The motivation is helping others, plain
and simple

How do you select who you mentor?.I also do more formal mentoring and coaching
for my startup clients (CEOs, CTOs), as well as pitch coaching. I’m
particularly involved with helping women in tech, women in startups and
teenage entrepreneurs.

What expectations do you have of your mentee?Do
what they say they are going to do.

What would make the mentoring experience better for
you?More time in the day!

What tools or support would make it easier to lend your
time? (i.e - someone to schedule meeting for you, email reminders of
meetings, an app like assistant.to, etc.)Anything to facilitate online
scheduling, so there is not a lot of back and forth. The more automated
the better.

Thank you for the great input! I really appreciate your perspective on mentorship. For me, mentoring is so rewarding and I have learned a lot from those I mentor too. I have benefitted a great deal from mentors. Folks who have generously shared their time and wisdom. Just having someone who can help you talk through ideas or to add a different point of view on challenges you are experiencing is priceless. I love working with tenacious mentees who are not afraid of taking big leaps and trying things. I really love folks that are proactive and who follow up when they say they will. Getting feedback on how I'm doing as a mentor would be the one thing I can think of that would make the experience better. I want to make sure I am meeting the needs of those who seek me out and feedback is always appreciated. I agree with A.J. that too many tools get in the way but I have tried to make sure to really take care of the mentors I have in our program in any way possible. The easiest way to support them is just to ensure I give them enough information about their mentees, that I remind them when they are scheduled to meet and to provide options for places to meet. Thanks again for your thoughts...keep them coming. I will also reach out to those who are interested in learning more about our program and getting involved!

My mentorship's are short lived because often the answer to a companies problem is usually easy for me to figure out so this causes a very short mentorship. Often the answer I give people when they hear it, they almost think after a few days or weeks that they figured it out on their own. Maybe I should drag it out but I just can't it's to painful to keep holding back not giving them the answer as soon as a figure out the solution. It doesn't build a big practice sometimes but it does allow you to sleep good at night.

Give Back... No one did it for me until I met my "wonderful" boss at SUN Microsystems.. No one teaches you what you need to know..

I have 20 (and sigh... 30 year olds)... They are in different industries than me .... They have mentors and I see how much value they receive

How do you learn.. Do you think an engineer graduating from a tier 1 school who knows how to code or design knows how to be an engineer in a company that has to build a product for profit... or a coder that understands the difference between code that works and code that scales ( or is saleable@!). Or a business school grad who can whip through a spread sheet and knows the ins and out of corporate or venture finance but has never seen a term sheet or led an offering... As a 20 something what happens the first time you need to speak intelligently to a corporate exec or funding source...

There is a difference between smart young people and experienced people ... and a difference between smart young people who know there are things they do not know and cannot learn from a book or a meetup ( those are the ones I like to work with ) vs those who think they know it all ( witness the on going thread about the founder who wants to keep all the equity for himself and not build a team.. clearly someone I would not like to mentor )

Mentoring is an art not a science... its best explained by a recent example... a firm I work with had a very creditable idea and prototype for a product usable by a fortune 1000 firm but as a startup of course had little traction... they asked several of us what to do... We told them to stop trying to sell the Fortune firms... go to the business development group and ask for opinions of their product... they followed that bit of "mentor advice". the firm of course recognized the value, put the product in one of their display areas at CES and now the entrepreneur is in consumer trials with them... Cost him nothing ... cost me nothing,.. but glad we were able to help... thats the value of mentoring...

Monica, I just finished one of my "mentor ships" with someone who was in trouble, both personal as professional. It is very rewarding to help this person grow and solve these issues, build a small company and start living again.

On a larger scale, example Inland Shipping organisation in my Belgium, I did exactly the same, results were a little bigger with more impact but basically it is just the same ...

It is always about bringing outside vision so that the 'owner' can prosper and grow. My recent professional project solved quite a few practical organisational issues in a group of 10 hospitals with +500 cleaners. In spite of conservative attitudes from groups who oppose any change, it will happen given a few local champions.

It really is always about people and what they want and how their organisation can benefit. By the end of the day there should always be something new, inspiring and improved to make every one happier with their jobs and help them achieve better results.

In my past it was about production, logistics and organisations improving their structure making their people happier better workers. For an organisation I have so often seen the complete revival.

Strangely, most solutions are simple, obvious and were always there. My contacts always say: "yes we knew but didn't see the road to do it.

Tools: I always use high tec, ICT, software, project management to create clarity. The other 80% are people and their will to grow.

I am simultaneously driven to solve problems and helppeople. Mentoring provides me a uniqueopportunity to do both while learning about that person and their particularchallenges. I typically mentorindividuals whose passion or interests intersect with mine. These people must be dedicated and willing tohave difficult conversations. I am notinterested in individuals who are looking for band aids - let’s discuss meaningfulissues and be open to take action.
Good luck on your program and scaling it! Let me know if there is anything else I canoffer or if you have any other questions.
"If you make the unconditional commitment to reach your most important goals, if the strength of your decision is sufficient, you will find the way and the power to achieve your goals."
S. Spinnraker, MBA
Consultant, NonProfit, Accounting, Business Svc.
Proprietress, http://glutenfreeasahabit.blogspot.com/
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